In 2000, my husband Chris and I visited Japan and met with the stars of the international hit TV series: “Things You Taught Me” (“Kimi Ga Oshiete Kureta Koto”) and it’s director at TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting) , Tsunenari Yamasaki. Eight years on the series has shown in countries throughout Asia and I thought to ask when we might get to see it in English speaking countries. Here’s my interview with the director:

DONNA WILLIAMS:
How did you get into the television industry? Why TV? And what is your
job at TBS and beyond?

TSUNENARI YAMASAKI:
I took a job interview and got hired. That was almost twenty five years ago.

Why TV? At that time TV business was attractive. Now I am producing some drama program but at the same time I am doing some budget control work. In Japan people work for the same companies. They seldom change companies. When the workers get older, they are moved to the management kind of department of the company. I am getting to that sort of age. I may stop producing and have to take care of the young workers or manage the workers more in the future, which I don’t like in fact.

DONNA WILLIAMS:
Wow, yes, I know Japan has a very organised culture!

You work in the heart of Tokyo, in the television industry. That sounds
pretty glamorous to some people. What is good about Tokyo and the
television industry? What is tough? And is the television industry
glamorous when you actually work in the industry?

TSUNENARI YAMASAKI:
You can see many famous people, actors and actresses, singers and so on. You might work with them.

In Tokyo there are superb good restaurants, theaters, museums……You may call Tokyo a cultural center of the world. It feels good to work here. But now the salaries of the board of directors are cut down because of the Japanese economic recession and the rampant internet business intrusion. Sooner or later my salary will be cut short. We are sliming the budget of the programs. Some good old sponsors are leaving TV. TV industry is going down.

DONNA WILLIAMS:
Oh dear. Yes, there is a lot of technological change and internet is competing with TV but at other times, TV has really used internet to it’s benefit, sending viewers from one media to the next through their websites.

Tokyo Broadcasting (TBS) produced “Things You Taught Me”, a 12 episode TV series about Mayuko, a character with autism. What was your role in relation to the series? What got you interested in autism?

TSUNENARI YAMASAKI:
My role was a producer. An acquaintance of mine has autism, so that led to an interest in autism. The more I studied autism, the more profound I realized the autism world was.

DONNA WILLIAMS:
Profound, yes, but diverse too.
Can you give us a synopsis of the series?

TSUNENARI YAMASAKI:
A drama about a woman with autism (Tomosaka Rie) who, through her friendship with a psychiatrist (Kamikawa Takaya), learns to assertively confront the challenges of autism. In the process of helping her, the psychiatrist also has to battle his own emotional problems. He has PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) after having witnessed his ex-girlfriend’s death and is no longer able to cry.

DONNAWILLIAMS:
Yes, I loved their parallel challenges in the series. I deal with both autism and PTSD so could relate to both.

You had read the first two of my nine published books, “Nobody
Nowhere” and “Somebody Somewhere” which both reached number 1 in
Japan. How did these help inform and develop the character of Mayuko?

TSUNENARI YAMASAKI:
Those two books are very powerful. I was deeply moved by them. I think those are the first books that revealed the inner world of a person with autism. To develop the character of Mayuko I got inspired by those books, especially the process or the journey to get to know herself, tackling the autism. Then I worked closely with a talented writer who also did her own research. On several occasions I visited some center of autism (Keyaki no sato) to
observe adults with autism, working and living together. And I joined some seminars of psychiatrists and counselors of autism. They also gave me a lot of advice.

DONNA WILLIAMS:
That’s really great. I wish all people making programs about autistic characters pursued a wide range of contact to get a sense of where their character is in terms of the nature of each person’s autism and also how and where autism interacts with different environments and personalities.

We made contact when you acquired the rights to two of my songs from my first CD;
“Beyond The When” and “Sometimes”, which feature in the series.

What role do you see music having in the telling of a story through
film? And how do you feel about using English language songs in a
Japanese TV series? Was it different because the songs were actually by
and performed by someone with autism? Was that relevant?

TSUNENARI YAMASAKI:
Your music is like crystal. Crystal-like beauty. Though many Japanese viewers cannot understand the lyrics, they can feel crystal-like world. And I think your music could help to understand Mayuko’s inner world.

“Was it different because the songs were actually by and performed by someone with autism?” …

….I feel something crystal-like beauty by the way you sing, too. I haven’t felt this feeling by the other artists. But I don’t know whether it was relevant or not. I don’t think all the artists with autism sing like you. I think you have your own style and your own creativity.

DONNA WILLIAMS:
Crystal like? Oooo. I’m in a band now, Donna and The Aspinauts. We do pretty punchy songs with strong rhythms and really topical environmental, sociological themes. I wonder if I have retained this ‘crystal like’ style. At some level, I think maybe I have. I’ll try and remember to send you an album when we make one… we’re hoping to by early 2009. Someone once told me voices can have the qualities of instruments. I’m told my voice has the quality of a oboe or clarinet! I guess that’s good if you like those instruments 😉

I met the two leads of “Things You Taught Me”; Rie Tomosaka and Takaya Kamikawa, in Tokyo. They were really delightful and it was
remarkable how they still had the feel of the characters they had played in the series. Were you involved with the casting? What drew you to these two for the leads?

TSUNENARI YAMASAKI:
Yes, I was involved with the casting. Rie Tomosaka is a marvelous actress. She is very talented. I had seen her acting several times and I thought this role was perfect for her. When I met her and offered her this role of a woman with autism, she said, “Yes.” Takaya Kamikawa is also a talented actor. He is also very kind-hearted person. I thought this psychiatrist role needed kindness. When I met him and offered this role, he said, “Yes.”

DONNA WILLIAMS:
“Things You Taught Me” was quite a hit for TBS and has gone international. Did that surprise you? It’s obviously meant you’ve
remained involved with this show for years now. Has it become an old friend by now?

TSUNENARI YAMASAKI:
Yes, it has become an old friend. It taught me a lot of things. About autism. About creating stories. And so on.

DONNA WILLIAMS:
Cool.
“Things You Taught Me” is shown throughout Asia and is shown with subtitles in Asian languages far beyond Japanese, but when will we see it in the English speaking world? Will you release some clips for You Tube so people can get a feel for it?

TSUNENARI YAMASAKI:
No English speaking TV company has yet shown interest in buying the rights of this program. You Tube and TBS are not on good terms. We are not allowed to release clips for any internet site. I understand this is to protect the performers’, writers’, musicians and directors right.

DONNA WILLIAMS:
Oh, catch 22. So I guess you have to wait until someone else does a clip about the program!
I do know there are ‘collectors’ of autism-related film and TV, so it may be this interview will let people know about the series. What I love about the series is that we get to see autism in an Asian context. In English speaking countries most of our autism related film is in a very US structure, formula and usually US based with US characters. I didn’t find “Things You Taught Me” to be US style at all.

The story through “Things You Taught Me” is simultaneously a ‘coming of age’ story, a love story and a thriller. What’s great about it is
that this collection of genres have meshed together really well. It surprised me how much of my autism related challenges you’ve captured in Mayuko, played by Rie Tomosaka, and the character has some elements of my personality too, yet the story is nothing like “Nobody Nowhere”. That’s quite a skill, to capture the essence that way and yet lift it into a whole other language, culture, story. You also had to do this with another autism story recently, “Marathon”. Could you tell us about ‘transposing’ that from cinema to TV and from Korean into Japanese language and culture?

TSUNENARI YAMASAKI:
TV dramas are not so different from cinemas. The difference, if there is, may be the camera. TV uses video camera and video tape. Cinema uses film camera and film.

To transpose Korean setting into Japanese setting is a little difficult. The attitude toward the autism is a little different among the two countries. We needed to adjust some of the social differences. But the parents emotion toward their children, we can find many similarities. So I didn’t have to change the basic relationship between the mother and the child with autism.

DONNA WILLIAMS:
Thanks so much for the interview and all the best to you in your work and your life. I hope this interview helps people learn more about the TBS series. They can visit the website to learn more:

http://www.tbs.co.jp/eng/catalog/english/drama/86.html

and find it here on the Internet Movie Database Imdb:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256559/

Warmly,

Donna Williams *)
author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter
http://www.donnawilliams.net